Planning for Chickens 2014

Red Ranger Roo

Most of the United States may still be in the grip of winter (though here in the Pacific NW it's distinctly springlike), but we're already planning for our next mob of chickens.  We're hoping to make a few changes this year - branch out and try something different.  The main change will be breed of bird; after 4 mobs of the ubiquitous Cornish Rock Cross, we're planning on switching to the Red Ranger as offered by Jenks Hatchery.  The Red Ranger is about a 12 week bird and average weights come in at around 5+ pounds for the females and often over 7 pounds for the males.  This breed produces a hardy bird which enjoys foraging and has excellent feed conversion.  Plus they are prettier and less boring than the CRX. 

In addition to changing breed, we're also considering changing up how we raise them.  Usually we do two flocks a year, but with a possibly busy summer and the longer growth period of the Ranger, we've decided to only do one run in the spring and skip the later summer/fall mob.  Because of this, we want to order more chicks (like 60-70) in order to fill the freezer with a year's worth of chicken.  With the larger number of birds of greater size, this means The Chicken Fortress will be too small (which means more building for the husband since we'll need something to house this motley crew at night).  So we're considering other options including fencing off a large section of our yard to devote to chicken raising.  Changes, changes changes!

 I also found this cool YouTube video about sprouting animal feed, and we're thinking of giving that a go with these birds.  Check it out!